New Boy Names

Remington Steele was the perfect name for an upper-crust action hero on 1980s television. Now, Remington is catching fire along with a new generation of predatory baby boy names such as Hunter, Gunner, and Colt. Or you might consider it a unisex namewith a buttoned-up British feel and the friendly short form Rem or Remy.

As a masculine name, Lian has historically been used as a nickname for names such as Julian and Killian, particularly in Europe. It’s also a unisex Chinese name pronounced as a single syllable.

Originally a nickname for a third-generation son, as in Thurman Thackeray III, Trey is now being given to others, and it has also expanded to Treynor and Treyton.

This is the name of Angel of Death in Jewish and Muslim tradition, but that isn't putting contemporary parents off. With its cool letter Z and popular -ael ending, Azrael has been in the US Top 1000 since 2019 and has continued to rise since then.

Maddox, a previously obscure Welsh family name with a powerfully masculine image, suddenly came into the spotlight when Angelina Jolie chose it for her son in 2003. By the following year it was in the middle of the Top 1000, and it has risen since.

A popular name in Denmark, in this country Bo has some cowboy swagger and a lot of substance in its minimal two letters. In Mandarin Chinese, Bo means "wave".

Clay is a rich, earthy one-syllable name with a southern-inflected handsome-rogue image, featured on soap operas and reality TV. Its longer forms are Clayton and Clayborne.

The girls have Violet and Scarlet and Ruby and Rose, but for the boys there's a much more limited palette of color names. Grey/Gray is one exception, which could make for a soft and evocative—if slightly somber—choice, especially in the middle. Kaitlin Olson and Rob McElhenney named their son Leo Grey.

Originally a form of the saint's name Blaise, though now more likely to be a hot word name used for both sexes, though heavily weighted toward the boys. It has been in the boys' Top 1000 since the year 2000. On the pop culture side of things, Blaze Bayley is a singer and musician who has been connected to the bands Wolfsbane and Iron Maiden.

Izan, pronounced with the same vowel sounds and emphasis as Ethan, ranks among the Top 20 boys' names in Spain, where it's been popular for two decades.

Parents seeking alternatives to popular Ryan have flocked to this soundalike name, which peaked at #146 in 2011. Blending in elements of Nolan and Riley too, it remains in the US Top 500, and is given to around 850 babies each year.

Better than Capricorn or Cancer, not as usable as Leo, the name of the Roman god of war becomes more possible as a baby name every day, as mythological names take the place of biblical names.

On the rise as an independent name: Zander and Xander are both widely used can increasingly be found as characters in movies and on TV.

Popular in Croatia, Spain, New Zealand, and Slovenia, Niko has also been rising up the US popularity charts for boys since the late 2000s. Fresher than Nicholas, spikier than Nico, it currently ranks just outside the US Top 300.

Pax, one of the variations of names meaning peace that are newly popular in these less-than-peaceful times, got a lot of publicity when chosen by Brad & Angelina for their Vietnamese-born son. Parents attracted to Pax may also want to consider Paz, the unisex Spanish version, or Paxton, a growing-in-popularity surname choice that shares that magical X-factor.

Kyler was once a creative solution for 90s parents who enjoyed the sounds of Kyle and Tyler but didn't want to use anything so popular. Now a well-established name on the US charts, it is given to more than 1000 babies every year.

Nova might be a much more commonly used a girls' name, but enough parents saw unisex appeal in it for it to debut on the US Top 1000 for boys in 2017. Nova is an astronomical term for a star that suddenly increases in brightness, then fades.

As trendy as the chic Colorado ski resort and film festival, Aspen is fast becoming more popular for girls than for boys, but this nature name would work equally well for either.

Adler is a German-Jewish surname that is beginning to be used occasionally as a first and is among the stylish new German names for boys. Among the distinguished bearers of Adler as a last name are Freud colleague Alfred Adler, actress and influential acting teacher Stella Adler and Guns N' Roses drummer Steve Adler.

Azariah is a rarely used biblical name that moves way beyond Adam and Abraham; its pleasant sound makes it no surprise that parents have discovered it in recent years.